Tuesday, January 27, 2015

I feel what Dalai Lama means by "Karma" is equal to what Thay means by "Seeds".

Dalai Lama said, "In order to reduce or eliminate the impact of previous negative karma, we need to create more forceful positive karma or accept the impact of previous negative karma without creating new negative karma."

And Thay mentioned that there are three ways to transform our deep-rooted seeds of suffering in his book titled "Understanding Our Mind" (page 155, Chapter 45 Mindfulness). The three ways are followings.(I feel that "our deep-rooted seeds of suffering" means our past negative karma.)

1. The first way: (prophylactic treatment)We allow seeds of suffering to lie quietly in our store consciousness while we sow new seeds and nourish existing seeds of peace, joy, and happiness.(I feel that "we sow new seeds and nourish existing seeds of peace, joy, and happiness" means that we create our new positive karma and enjoy the impact of our past positive karma.)

2. The second way: (symptomatic treatment)We continue to practice mindfulness that allows us to recognize seeds of suffering when they arise. (I feel that "we recognize seeds of suffering when they arise" means that we accept the impact of our past negative karma when it arises.)

3. The third way: (aggressive approach)We deliberately invite afflictions that have been with us since childhood in our store consciousness up into our mind consciousness and we sit down and talk with them, like old friends. (I feel that "we deliberately invite afflictions up into our mind consciousness" means that we intentionally try to cause and accept the impact of our past negative karma.)* The third way was not taught by Dalai Lama and its concrete method is not shown by Thay (watering unwholesome seeds in store consciousnessintentionally so that afflictions may manifest in mind consciousness?). But I feel that we may be able to meet and restore communication with our wounded inner child if we are mindful and concentrated deeply and if we have deep listening capacity. Anyway we have to be very careful about the third way because Thay mentioned, "someone who is suffering greatly and does not know how to practice mindfulness should not start out practicing the third way—inviting the seeds of suffering up into the conscious mind."

"Negative seeds (karma) will always be there even after you have become a Buddha. Buddha is not a person who does not have the negative seeds. Buddha is someone who knows how to protect himself so that negative seeds in him not to be watered by himself and by others. And Buddha is someone who knows how to allow his good seeds to be watered every day so that happiness and compassion can grow every day. So, I do have a seed of depression. And all persons have a seed of depression. But if you know the practice of right diligence, you will be okay. And the other kinds of seeds will have no chance to manifest and take us away."

Above shows that our past negative karma will not be eliminated upon enlightenment. So, our past negative karma may cause the negative impact even after enlightenment if we don't protect ourselves. But enlightened persons know the selective watering method to prevent the negative impact from occurring.

Sunday, January 25, 2015

"In our dream, we may see that we get out of our body and we fly. And we look back and we can see our body still sleeping. But that is in a dream only. That you invent in your mind. In fact, the body and the mind can't get out of the body and go somewhere else. Because the mind is not a separate entity. That is why when you see something happening in the body, the mind is influenced by it. And when something happens in the mind, the body gets it, too. That is why the mother medicine knows that in order to take care of the mind, you have to take care of the body, and in order to take care of the body, you have to take care of the mind." OBE (out-of-body experience) is an invention of your mind in your dream.上のティク・ナット・ハンのビデオを 4:00 ～ 5:31 迄ご覧ください。

Friday, January 23, 2015

Thay said, "There are genetic ancestors and spiritual ancestors.It's easy to understand genetic ancestors which mean that genes of our parents are in us biologically and become the source of the body. But I have been wondering how I can understand spiritual ancestors which mean the source of the consciousness. My insight is the followings.When the body disintegrates, it will scatter to the whole cosmos in different forms (by changing forms), namely as new matter such as water, air, minerals or energy. (The total sum of matter and energy will be conserved in ecosystem according to the law of conservation of energy and mass.) As the past life's body was enfolding consciousness, each particle and energy is enfolding the same quality of past life's consciousness like iPS cell (induced pluripotent stem cell). (As David Bohm explained about implicate order, everything is inside of everything else.) Those particles and energy will be absorbed by vegetables, for example and grow them. Then the vegetables will be eaten as a food by a pregnant lady to enter into her fertilized egg. In this timing, the fertilized egg (body) merges with consciousness which came from the past life's consciousness. Therefore, all memories or records (karma) till the past life are still preserved and transmitted to the new body. I feel this is the meaning of spiritual ancestors.If above insight is correct, those who couldn't have their own children will be relieved because they can become spiritual ancestors of new generations even though they can't become genetic ancestors. Anyway, there is no birth and death. Our body and consciousness will continue to live without death.Thay said, "God is everything".

I feel the whole cosmos, namely every matter and energy which is enfolding consciousness (subconscious) inside, is God.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Please refer to the 13th book of the Mahabharata: "Happiness comes due to good actions, suffering results from evil actions, by actions, all things are obtained, by inaction, nothing whatsoever is enjoyed. If one's action bore no fruit, then everything would be of no avail, if the world worked from fate alone, it would be neutralized." The above is exactly the same as the law of causality in Buddhism .マハーバーラタの第13巻をご参照ください：「幸福は良い行動によってもたらされ、苦しみは悪い行動の結果である。行動によって全てのものを得、不作為によっては全く何も得られない。もし、自分の行動が実を結ばないなら、全てが（何をしても）無駄であろう。もし、この世が宿命だけによって機能するなら（自分の行動によって運命を変えられないなら）、全てが（何をしても現世では）無効にされるだろう。」上記は、正に仏教における因果の法則と同一です。

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Buddha denied ego (separate self) by emptiness (absence of independent existence) in the realm of conventional truth. Do we really need to get rid of our ego (separate self)? No, not at all in the realm of ultimate truth. Ego (separate self) is the root cause of sufferings, namely bad. Meanwhile, non-separate self is the source of happiness, namely good. But we need to accept both good and bad and take good care of both. That's because good and bad are interdependent.Don't be attached to either. Don't reject either. Handle good and bad in the same way without discrimination. Good is made of non-good elements, namely bad. Bad is made of non-bad elements, namely good. They are both sides of a coin. If you remove bad, good is also removed. There is no good without bad. Lotus flower can't grow without mud. Therefore, make peace with good and bad.Non-separation is the key. Emptiness means the absence of independent existence, namely non-separation. Lotus flower can't grow without mud. Self is made of non-self elements, namely the whole cosmos. If we understand this, we can rest in God or rely on cosmic body.仏陀は、一般的な真理の領域においては「空」（独立した存在の不在）によってエゴ（独立した自己）を否定しました。私たちは本当にエゴ（独立した自己）を取り除く必要があるでしょうか？いいえ、究極の真理の領域においては、全くありません。エゴ（独立した自己）は苦しみの根本的な原因であり、悪です。一方、独立していない自己は幸福の源であり、善です。しかし、私たちは善と悪の両方を受け容れ、両方の世話をよくする必要があります。それは、善と悪が相互に依存しているからです。どちらかに執着してはいけません。どちらかを拒否してはいけません。分け隔てなく同じように善と悪を取り扱ってください。善は、善でない要素、即ち悪からできています。悪は、悪でない要素、即ち善からできています。善と悪はコインの両面なのです。もし、悪を取り除くと、善もまた取り除かれてしまいます。悪なしに、善はありません。蓮の花は、泥なしでは育たないのです。ですから、善悪と和してください。分け隔てしないこと（非分離）が鍵です。空は独立した存在の不在、即ち非分離を意味します。蓮の花は泥なしでは育ちません。自己は非自己の要素、即ち全宇宙でできています。このことを理解すれば、私たちは神にくつろぐか、宇宙の体に頼れます。

Monday, January 12, 2015

Nature of consciousness was explained by Thích Nhất Hạnh as follows:Buddhism: "Consciousness is made of mental formations which manifest and succeed each other, and give the impression that is a current (a river: always flowing and always changing) that there is an entity called alaya or mentation or mind consciousness."Neuroscientist: "Consciousness is not a thing, but is a process."David Hume (Scottish philosopher in 18th century):"Consciousness is a beam of light or a collection of different perceptions which succeed each other with an inconceivable speed. They are in a flock or perpetual movement."William James (American philosopher and psychologist):"Consciousness is a current of thought."Henri Bergson (French philosopher):"Consciousness has a cinematographic nature."(cinematographic mechanism of the mind: When you look at a film you have the impression that a real story is happening. But if you hold up the strip of film and examine it, you see that there are only individual pictures succeeding each other and giving the impression that there is an entity, or continuum.)